More Than 80 Presumed Dead After Boat Capsizes in DR Congo
The disaster happened on Wednesday on the Kwa River, 70km from the town of Mushie in the province of Mai-Ndombe near the border with neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville.
The vessel was carrying about 271 people, well above its capacity, when it suffered an engine failure and capsized, sending all of them into the water, Ren Maker, an official of the Congolese rivers authority, said on a national radio station.
According to Rita Bola Dula, the governor of Mai-Ndombe Province, where the disaster occurred, night sailing partly caused the overcrowded boat to sink.
“We are in the process of extracting the survivors and other bodies,” Dula told Reuters news agency.
Deadly boat accidents are common in the DRC, where vessels are frequently loaded well beyond their capacity. The central African country has few tarred roads across its vast, forested territory, and river travel is common.
